Hynes completed his fourth season with the Predators and has one year remaining on his contract. Nashville (42-32-8) finished three points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference and will miss the postseason for the first time since 2013-14.
"As I said, this will be a process," Trotz said Monday. "I'm going to evaluate from the players, the staff, to John. We're going to talk about his plan for next year and go from there. That's the process, and you've got to respect the process. It's the same process (current GM) David (Poile) has gone through with me for a long time, so I don't think he was able to answer that question right away."
Trotz is in an advisory role before he takes over as GM when Poile retires June 30. He coached Nashville for 15 seasons, serving under Poile.
Hynes was hired by the Predators on Jan. 7, 2020, to replace Peter Laviolette. He's 134-95-18 in four seasons and guided Nashville to the playoffs in each of his first three, losing in the first round to the Arizona Coyotes, Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche.
Trotz praised Hynes for keeping an inexperienced team in the playoff chase after the Predators traded defenseman Mattias Ekholm (Edmonton Oilers), and forwards Nino Niederreiter (Winnipeg Jets), Tanner Jeannot (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Mikael Granlund (Pittsburgh Penguins), prior to the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline on March 3. They also endured injuries to defenseman Roman Josi (concussion), and forwards Matt Duchene (finger), Filip Forsberg (concussion) and Ryan Johansen (tendons).
"John has done a terrific job in us doing a little bit of a teardown," Trotz said. "I think the one thing John has done is he looked at the roster and prepared the roster and got them ready to find a way to win down the stretch, so compliment to John and his staff for that."
Hynes said he was disappointed with the Predators' consistency during the first half of the season, which led them to become a seller before the deadline.
"We all have to take ownership of that first half of the season," Hynes said. "There's different things we'll talk about with guys starting today as far as some assessments of individuals, assessments starting with myself and moving down through the coaching staff and into the players.
"I think there are some important discussions to have with players, with veteran players, now, when you're getting a plan together to make sure we have the right answers moving forward the right way. But I think the first half of the season overall, I think it was just a lack of consistency in the way that you need to play to have success night in and night out."
